Duke, if the thermostat was loose and bi passing water it would hinder warmup rather than speed it up.
start the car up cold with the radiator cap off, if it starts to bubble out right away then you have combustion getting into the coolant. that's the first thing i would do.
oops. i just wanted to really push that point. i've also put charged each cylinder with compressed air one at a time with the rdiator cap off and look for ole faithful.
Update This morning I checked for blown head gaskets by pulling the plugs and pressurizing each cylinder. No air bubbles in the radiator, no oil in the coolant, no coolant in the oil. No blown head gasket. I pulled the thermostat and put it back together. It took over 5 minutes at idle to get up to 195 where it sat for a few more minutes. I then took it out and drove it. About 70 here this morning. Temp ran up a little while going through 25 & 35 mph zones. Then got it out where I could go 50 - 55. Temp sat at about 195. Slowed down to turn around and by the time I was up to speed the temp was down to about 190 where it stayed until I got back into the 25 - 35 zone and then it crept up above 195. I think it is under cooled. So I have a high flow water pump coming from TA and will install it along with a new Griffin radiator if they make one that will work. I also will install a dual electric fan / shroud assembly. In my mind over kill is better than overheating. Thoughts?
Curious about your current Chineseum aluminum radiator. How many rows does it have? How big are the tubes? With no thermostat, and 70* ambient temperature, it should have took forever to warm up, and it should have run a lot cooler than 190-195. Something is wrong for sure.
I'm all for overkill but your throwing the kitchen sink at it!! Why don't you just put the Griffen radiator in it first and go from there. I just finished my car drove it all over yesterday, 455 ,parts store new water pump Griffen rad, 160 stat it was 95 degrees here and 90% humidity. Temp gauge never went over 165. Did stop and go and on highway. It is a 4 speed car so I know that does take in some affect but not enough to make that drastic of a difference to make it overheat try the rad first before you just throw a lot of money away and never know what the real problem is. Also running reg coolant mixed w water. Good luck
I'm with Larry, something isn't right. Mine runs for 10 minutes at an idle before it kicks the cooling fan on at 185. I still think you have head gasket issues. Have your coolant tested, its the only way to know for sure.
I'm with everyone else on it either being a plugged exhaust or the timing is off. At 70*F I don't think the warm up time is too far off if there is too much ignition advance. I add 5* "extra" advance in my car during warm up and I have datalogs to show it quickens the warm up process by a fair margin. I've ran timing from 15* to 28* at idle and the engine warms up considerably faster at 28* than at 15*. The "extra" fuel helps as well (choke function). Simply keeps the heat in the engine. At 70* ambient my car is at operating temperature within 5 minutes. Even at well below freezing temperatures my car gets up to operating temperature around 5 minutes, and certainly under ten. If the exhaust isn't plugged, I'd be looking at timing and fueling. What did the plugs look like when you pulled them?
Duke I think you are on the right track, I'm with Larry give that radiator a once over. A TA water pump and a decent radiator along with air flow should be all you need. Another thing how many miles on that engine? A tight engine will run a little warm and they do warm up fast. keep us posted.:TU: Bob H.
For what it is worth test the radiator cap, also check the harmonic balancer to be sure the pulley is not slipping. I say this because i blew the head gasket on my mini-excavator because of this. I owned the machine for 4 yrs and never had an overheat issue. One day i started it cold, ran it across the yard about 200' and the temp gauge was out of the case. I shut it down and yanked the thermostat, restarted it to find i had pressure on the overflow hose. I tried to run it again and it was overheating within a minute. The belt was tight, everything was spinning. I said screw it and sold it to a junkie. He ran it in his junkyard with no issue for a month. He sold it to another friends of mine who ran it for awhile and then all the sudden a couple weeks ago it was overheating again. He took it to a mutual friend of ours who repairs heavy equipment who then replaced the water pump and head gasket. Started it up and within minutes overheated again. They let it cool off and restarted it, the mechanic reached in with a prybar and put pressure on the crank pulley and it stopped spinning. This whole time the overheating issue was due to a bad crank balancer letting the pulley slip but still give the illusion it was spinning.
Larry The Chinesium rad is a 3 row they look to be about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. ---------- Post added at 08:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:47 PM ---------- Stacy Thanks for the input on the Griffin. I called there today already to place an order only to be told that the only thing they have that will work for my '67 is one from a later Nova. Size is close but the outlet is 1 1/4 inch. The guy on the phone was no help at all. He was more interested in carrying ona conversation with someone in the background. I am looking at Be Cool now and hope to get something on the way tomorrow. I will find someone to test the coolant tomorrow. In case you haven't noticed, I am reluctant to pull the heads or engine. Plugs are relatively new and still look it. Not black or sooted up. Bob The engine is brand new - less than 200 miles. I didn't build it and know very little about it. I had it out of the car last year when it was in the body shop. I changed the timing cover, pan and other gaskets but did not pull the intake or heads. I really don't want to do that now either but may have to. Will check it out. I really appreciate all the input and thought everyone is giving this issue. Thanks:beer
Duke, I bought a copper and brass radiator from U.S. radiator and i couldn't be more impressed. I bought the optima core which is a super high efficiency unit and looks very stock. the upside is it's easily repairable unlike an aluminum radiator. Macs radiator in Portland and Vancouver is a dealer and can get one for you easily. http://www.usradiator.com/buick-gs-1967-v8-340-400-radiator.html
I have had the exact same heating problems. in all cases it was under cooling. 7 blade fans and bigger radiators pretty much solved the problems. I don't believe you can have too much cooling in a BBB. heat is the enemy. lots of guys with BBB run auxiliary electric fans to keep temp under control on really hot days or in traffic.
That is what I thought. That defeats the purpose of using aluminum. Aluminum does not transfer heat as well as brass/copper. The reason for using aluminum is that it is stiffer than brass/copper, and it can support tube sizes up to 1 1/2" without ballooning. Brass/copper tubes are limited in size to about 5/8". What you have is an aluminum copy of a 3 core brass/copper radiator. That copy will not cool as good as a stock 3 core radiator. The best aluminum radiators have no more than 2 rows. If you see one with 3 or 4 rows, RUN. I have my Griffen 2 row, 1 1/4" tube radiator since May of 2000. It still looks and performs today as good as it did back when I bought it. It easily keeps my 602 HP engine cool on the hottest of days.
x2. 3 and 4 row aluminum radiators are for 120+mph average speeds where the engine is really continually cranking out the HP AND the air pressure can push through the extra core thickness without walling off from turbulance. Think NASCAR and open road challenge events.
Bob Thanks for the info & link. I ordered a Griffin from Summit and will install it along with the TA high flow pump and try a 160 thermostat with my flex fan and shroud before I go to electric fan. Remember it is a Buick - not some Cheby. 120 shouldn't be out of the question!! I did take it to a shop this morning and have them check for combustion gases in the coolant. Nothing there!!!!! :grin: Don't want to pull it out. Thanks
That's good. I have a Pontiac buddy who told me a lot of the reman water pumps the impeller is pressed to far on the pump so the distance between the impeller and the timing cover is too big and the impeller can't move the water effectively. maybe that has something to do with it. Are you running stock belts or a serpentine system?
